Some good wins for Lake Macquarie in today’s Budget

Today’s State Budget contains a number of good wins for the Lake Macquarie electorate, including funding for key road projects, the new sport and recreation centre, social housing and other capital works.

After many years of campaigning, we’ve secured funding to address the peak-hour snarls at Speers Point roundabout (at the intersection of Five Islands Road and The Esplanade).

The State has committed $5m in funding to install ‘traffic metering lights’ which would give priority flows onto the roundabout during the morning and afternoon peaks.

The Government has also allocated the first $3m towards the widening of Mandalong Road between the M1 interchange at Morisset and the Wyee Rd/Freemans Drive roundabout. This project includes traffic lights which will be installed at the two existing roundabouts along that stretch as well as dedicated turning lanes which will significantly improve traffic flow towards Cooranbong and Wyee, and to the major new developments happening in Morisset. $20m has been committed  by the State with the Federal Government previously announcing its contribution of $56m.

Also on roads, a further $1.3m has been allocated to the Hillsborough Rd widening project. Work on this $35m project is expected to start next year. It will widen Hillsborough Rd to four lanes between Crockett St and the Newcastle bypass as well as upgrade the dangerous intersections at Chadwick Street and Crockett Street.

In other funding announcements today, I very much welcome the $5m injection of funds into the new sport and recreation centre at Morisset. It needs to be remembered, though, that this money is coming from the $40m provided to the project by Origin Energy which is committed to replacing what was lost at Myuna Bay.

It’s taken a while to get the project over the line but it’s now locked in and well on the way to becoming a reality. The Office of Sport is currently in the process of recruiting a project manager, and I’m told that draft designs for the new centre will be opened to public consultation phases around October.

I’m pleased to see that this Budget has also made further commitments to ongoing projects in Lake Macquarie. These include the $3m Boolaroo Lead Mitigation Scheme, and initial planning for commuter car parks at Morisset, Cardiff and Fassifern. Plans for all of those are now well advanced and I’m hoping to be able to announce further details on them soon.

This is a great Budget for Lake Macquarie - not everything we wanted, but we’ve finally got some action on Speers Point roundabout, and we’re finally going to see work started on the new sport hub at Morisset, more than three years after Myuna Bay was closed.

Key highlights for the Lake Macquarie Electorate

• $5m to install traffic metering lights at Speers Point roundabout
• $5m towards the new $40m sport and recreation hub at Morisset
• $3m of the State’s $20m commitment to widening Mandalong Rd between the M1 interchange and the Wyee Rd/Freemans Drive roundabout at Morisset
• A further $1.3m towards the $35m widening of Hillsborough Rd at Hillsborough
• $2.5m towards Lake Macquarie hosting the World Championship Air Race
• $4m for Bladevolt Production Facility from the Regional Job Creation Fund.
• $120,000 towards planning for the Regional Sailing Centre of Excellence.
• $651,000 towards the Rathmines Youth Hub
• $786,000 towards establishing the Biraban Local Aboriginal Land Council Community Centre.
• $2.9m for Aboriginal housing projects
• $1.6m for social housing upgrades